Total Motorcycle Community Forums

At the risk of displaying my inexperience and sounding completely mentally challenged (I do not suffer from either dyslexia or retardation), I'm asking this question as it has been on my mind through the night. I would try it myself and get the answer, but as you will see momentarily, there are obvious reasons I am hesitant to try.

So last night I'm riding and go to honk at a fellow rider across the street. For whatever reason, I have a brain fart and use my right thumb to push the starter button rather than my left to push the horn. (Total newb, I know ) I quickly realized my mistake and corrected it and was able to acknowledge my two-wheeled comrade properly.

Anyway, that had me thinking all night. What if either in a panic situation, or simply during a moment of distraction/confusion, you mix up your right and left brain thinking and use the opposite hand to perform the task you intend to do. Now I can't see much harm in pulling in the clutch when you really mean to brake because more times than not, either of those functions happens steadily and you'd have time to recognize your mistake. Also, I would say there is definitely is a distinct feeling pulling in the clutch, and hearing and feeling the power to the back wheel cutting or applying the brake and feeling the bike become heavier as it slows down. So not too worried about that.

However, I thought, what if I go to flash my high beams and mistakenly hit the damn engine cut-off switch?! Will the bike react as if it is parked in gear and not allow the front wheel to move more than a few inches? If so, all I can picture is me traveling along in 3rd gear at about 30-40mph and hitting it and pulling the sickest endo in the history of motorcycling (something I have NO desire to accomplish). I hope I am wrong in predicting what would happen. Would the bike merely turn off and I coast to a stop? These were the only two outcomes I could think of and would really like to know what actually would happen.

Again, I'm not really worried about this actually happening as it was totally a one time thing, but I figure I'd ask just in case I encounter a crazy cabby cager or any NYC motorist that causes my instincts to kick in a bit faster than they're used to at this early stage in my riding career.

I'm not sure why your brights are near your cut off - I thought that all bikes had the cut off on the right (above the starter) and the brights on the left (above the turn indicator switch). Yours must be different.

Anyway... as to the other concerns, you don't need to worry at all. It's normal to make a couple mistakes due to brain farts. But don't worry about the "what ifs?". Just focus on doing everything correctly. One time I was going through the parking lot of a local dairy farm/ice cream parlor/mini-putt course/restaurant complex where oodles and oodles of bikers hang out every summer, and as I'm cruising through I decide to open my face shield. I'm on our (previous) FZ6, which was kind of "twitchy", and as I popped my shield with my left hand, I somehow bipped the throttle just enough to cause a little tank slapper. I almost lost it just like that! I can't even describe my feeling of embarrassment. The only good parts were 1., I didn't crash and 2., none of the bikers were close enough to actually witness my blunder.

Keep practicing and soon enough certain things will become so natural and smooth, that when you go to beep at a fellow rider it'll be a no-brainer. And please double check your switch locations - I'm curious about this.

Cheers,
Loonette

You can still push a bike when it is in gear... what happens when you hit the kill switch is the spark plugs stop firing. The bike will still roll, but you will be slowing down more than just coasting. The engine will be turning because the bike is already moving, and the wheel will be forcing it to move... but the engine doesn't want to. That is why you need to pull your clutch.

I've had a bike die mid-ride. It started slowing down, so I pulled in the clutch and coasted to a stop.

Hope this helps.

I think he means using his left hand when he means to use his right.

My bike is the same, my switches are identical on the left and the right. The starter is the opposite of the horn, the brights are the opposite of the kill. But mine has an additional bright flasher on the left...does your bike have it?

Hmmm...ok...well, I guess it could really lead to disaster, for example, if you need to swerve and have to actually "think" 'which grip do I have to push?' WHAM!...cuz you don't actually have time to think. So, the answer to your question is practice. Parking lot practice. Repetition, until all things become second nature. That includes the location of controls located near the grips.

Interesting fact of the day: It takes 10-15,000 repetitions to commit an act to muscle memory.

Wow, that's bordering on paranoia. Just relax and try to enjoy yourself out there!

Or spend a little while playing around with the switches until you get used to it. Sort of like learning to type... dunno, this has never cropped up for me personally.

Loonette wrote:I'm not sure why your brights are near your cut off - I thought that all bikes had the cut off on the right (above the starter) and the brights on the left (above the turn indicator switch). Yours must be different.

You're correct in that my bike is like all others: Engine cut-off right, Brights left. My problem was that I meant to use my right hand and instead used my left.

Anyway, I agree with some of the other replies, I'm being a bit paranoid and won't worry about it too much as I've been very good so far.

Just wanted to know the answer to satisfy my own curiosity about the outcome.

SuperRookie wrote:Interesting fact of the day: It takes 10-15,000 repetitions to commit an act to muscle memory.

So you're saying I've got about 14,981 high-beam flashes to go...

Well then I guess I should get started, I'll talk to you guys later.

I hit the power button a few times while riding. It was after riding for a long period of time and I was just moving my hand around trying to get a different thumb or finger position. Without realizing I had hit it to off, I couldn't figure out why I was slowing down until I looked and saw that I had knocked the switch.

Now I know better and it has never happened again.